


We've Been Waiting for You

by pancake_surprise



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Families of Choice, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Marauders, Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), No rats allowed, Nobody is Dead, Slice of Life, except peter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 05:47:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17843600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pancake_surprise/pseuds/pancake_surprise
Summary: It's a race to St. Mungo's on the morning of Teddy Lupin's birth. One will win, all will cry.A.K.A. a ficlet featuring the rest of the Marauders et al gushing over a newborn Teddy Lupin.





	We've Been Waiting for You

"Move, move, move. Out of the way!”

"It's happening, people, it's happening!" 

Sirius dodges a rather surly looking wizard and nearly trips himself in the process. It slows him down only infinitesimally but for all he's concerned, it might as well have stopped him completely.

“Can’t you move any faster, we’ve got to go!” he yells. 

“Oh shut it, I’m running faster than you!” says James, turning briefly to look at Sirius over his shoulder.

"Yeah, whatever," Sirius says, picking up his speed.

James snorts.

"When are there ever so many people here? Of course, the Ministry is teeming with people today of all days! Seriously, don’t any of you people know what it means when someone yells to move!”

Sirius' frantic need to get out of the Ministry for Magic multiplies with each second he and James spend pushing themselves through the massive crowd that insists on moving at an increasingly sluggish pace. He's inclined to stun every last one of them if the crowd doesn't start parting like the bloody Red Sea in that muggle story Remus told him.

“Hold it you two,” calls a voice behind them and Sirius groans. 

James comes to an immediate stop and with no way to stop himself, Sirius collides right into him and they both go cascading to the ground. Sirius, to his utter amusement, lands safely atop James but, judging from the groaning, the same can't be said for James.

“Lily!” James yells, pushing his glasses up his nose with one hand and pushing Sirius off him with the other.

“Hey!” he says. 

“Did you get the message from the hospital?” James asks, ignoring him completely. Sirius huffs and crosses his arms. He knows he looks like a petulant child but he doesn't care.

Lily rolls her eyes. “Yes, you nitwits and if you think you’re going to rush off to the hospital without me then you’re sorely mistaken.”

“Sorry love, guess we just got caught up in the excitement of it all," says James. 

"Yes, I'm sure you did."

Lily offers James a hand up and he wastes no time pulling her in by the waist for a kiss once he’s standing.

“It’s another baby in the family after all! What’s more exciting than that?” James says. 

“Yes, yes, it’s all dandy and lovely,” Sirius grouses, “so why in Merlin’s name are we still loitering here?”

With James and Lily still staring disgustingly into each other's eyes, it's clear that neither Lily or James is going to offer him a hand so he pushes himself off the ground and brushes non-existent dirt from his trousers. Leave it to Prongs and Lily to get sentimental in the middle of the goddamned Ministry for Magic when they’ve got places to go and more importantly a baby to meet.

“Fair point, I'll see you there, boys.”

Lily sprints off, leaving them behind and slipping gracefully between the throngs of people in a way Sirius or James will never accomplish. James makes no sign he's inclined to move, staring only at Lily's disappearing form. Sirius rolls his eyes and grabs James by the arm harder than is probably necessary.

“You're more hopeless now twenty years later than you were as a pining sixth year. Come on Prongs, we’ve got a baby to meet and it’s not going to be in the Department of Mysteries.”

"Right," James says, shaking his head and finally looking away from where Lily disappeared into the crowd. "Let's go."

* * *

“I’m sorry sir, if you are not a member of the family, then we cannot allow anyone into the maternity ward without express consent from the mother and father.”

Sirius groans. 

"How many times do I have to say it, we are family!" Sirius says gesturing between himself, James, and Lily. "And since when is security so tight on a maternity ward? I don't remember it being this strict when Harry was born!"

"I'm going to need you to calm down sir." 

Sirius rips his hands through his hair and tries his hardest not to growl at the receptionist standing between the three of them and the entrance to the maternity ward.

“Surely if you’ll just check, you will see that each of us is listed a member of both the mother and the father’s family," James tries.

The receptionist fixes him with a look. 

“Ma’am,” Lily says, pushing her way in front of Sirius and James. “Sorry about him. He’s a little overexcited. Just do your best to ignore him, it’s what we all do when he gets like this. He means well, promise."

Lily pauses and shoots him a glare that he's been on the receiving end of enough times to know that if he speaks again, Lily will not hesitate to kill him. And right before meeting the baby too.

“He doesn’t mean any harm. Though, I'm sure you'd much rather toss the lost of us onto the street, if you could take a moment to check their file, I'm confident you will find that all three of us are listed as family. We would have been here even earlier, the moment she was in labor, but from our understanding, the baby came so quickly they weren’t able to notify us in time. We wouldn’t have missed it for the world otherwise.”

The receptionist seems to mill over Lily's speech for a moment and Sirius tries his most dazzling, non-confrontational smile he can muster though from the look Prongs is giving him, it's probably a tad more manic than he intends.

“If you can promise he won’t try to dash into the ward for a second time when I turn my back, then I will be happy to check for you,” the receptionist finally says.

Sirius nods. “Cross my heart, I’m not going anywhere.”

She eyes him wearily and if he’s honest with himself, she has good reason. Just because he’s getting older doesn’t mean he’s grown up to match.

“We promise, ma’am,” James adds, holding onto Sirius’ bicep with one hand. "He's not going anywhere without your express permission."

“What were your names again, ma’am?” the receptionist asks, directing the question at Lily and Lily only.

Sirius pouts. Can anyone really blame him for his behavior? On the other side of those doors is the most exciting thing that's happened to them since they were in the same hospital nearly seventeen years earlier for Harry's birth. 

“James and Lily Potter and Sirius Black.”

“Oh, and Harry Potter,” Lily adds after a moment. 

Sirius shoots her with a look and quirks an eyebrow. It’s the nearly the middle of term and Harry is at Hogwarts where Sirius presumes little has changed since his last letter where he professed he's still trying to work up the courage to ask out the Weasley girl and half-heartedly studying for NEWTS.

She shrugs. “Harry won’t be living up to the marauder legacy if he doesn’t find some way to get here the moment he hears that the baby is born.”

Sirius blinks once, grins then cracks up laughing just the same as James.

“You’re right,” James says.

“You’re absolutely right,” says Sirius at the same time.

“NEWTS be damned. I wouldn’t be surprised if he beat us here.”

“It looks like you lot are all listed as family. Not sure how I missed it before. I apologize for the misunderstanding. Baby Lupin is in room 786B, follow the signs and you’ll find it just fine.”

* * *

Sirius freezes in the doorway to room 786B. There's a vase of colorful flowers set next to the bed and a bunch of balloons covered in dancing teddy bears shouting 'it's a boy!' crowd the corner, and, right there in the center of it all sits the family of the hour, all three crowded onto the bed. Tonks has the baby cradled in both arms, her head resting on Remus' shoulder while he's got one arm 'round her back and the other gently resting on the bundle in Tonks' arms. Both Tonks and Remus have their full attention fixed on the baby and Sirius hardly blames them.

He inhales sharply and tears prick at his eyes. 

"Oy! Get a move on!"

James gives him a good shove between the shoulder blades and he nearly trips face first into the room. 

At the commotion, Remus looks up at them and smiles warmly. 

"You made it."

"Fast as we could," James says with a grin.

Remus grins. "I wouldn't expect any less." 

"I thought this one," Lily says gesturing to Sirius, "was going to start stunning the poor witches and wizards caught in their way right there in the Ministry for Magic. Man on a mission, he was. You should have seen it," Lily says.

"If it was anything like when we got the message that you were in labor with Harry then I think I can imagine. Sometimes I still wonder how we made it to the hospital both in one piece and without a single murder committed between the two of us."

"Excuse me but we were in the middle of the worst wizarding war in modern history when Harry was a born. Given the circumstances, a little bit of murder might have been necessary if we wanted to make it all to the delivery room."

"Oh quit talking about war and murder and get over here you three," says Tonks. 

Sirius wastes no time and is next to Tonk's bed in mere seconds.

The baby's eyes are closed and he's wrapped tightly in a cream-colored blanket but there's absolutely no doubt whose baby he is. 

"He's beautiful," Sirius says reverently. 

Tonks beams. "Isn't he? Takes after Remus I think." 

Remus scoffs. 

"I can see it," Lily says now standing next to him. "He's an itty-bitty Remus!" 

Tonks nudges Remus and he untangles himself before rolling from the bed and standing. His sweater is rumpled and his hair is sticking up in every which way, undoubtedly from running his hand through it over and over again.

Remus gingerly takes the baby from Tonks' arms. It shouldn't be so startling to see Remus with a baby in his hands. It's nearly seventeen years ago now, but Remus held Harry all the time when he was an infant and then a toddler. And there were other babies too, children born to other Order members after the first war ended or distant relatives. But it is startling. In the absolute best way.

When they were young, Remus never once let himself think that a day like this could be his. If Sirius traveled back in time from this moment to five, ten, or twenty years ago to tell Remus about the day of his son's birth, he probably would laugh in his face or scold him for the cruel joke. 

Sirius smiles and feels his eyes grow a bit watery again as Remus crosses the room, bundle held carefully to his chest. 

"James?" Remus asks holding the baby out like a peace offering. "Would you like to hold him?"

James smiles, nods once and holds out his hands.  

"Well done, Moony," he says softly, once the baby is tucked safely against his chest.

Remus smiles. 

"Have you picked a name?" Lily asks without looking up from the bundle in James' arms.

"Edward," Tonks says. "After my dad. Teddy for short." 

"Hello, Teddy. I'm your Uncle James." 

"About that," Remus says. "I was wondering- well, we were hoping," he looks briefly back at Tonks. She shoots him a smile. "We were hoping that you would be Teddy's godfather."

James' face pinches and twists up in a way that would be horribly unflattering if it weren't so endearing. He sniffles once. Twice.

Remus, bless him, smiles and waits as patiently as ever for James to get a hold of himself. 

James sniffles a third time and if he doesn't quit it then it's only a matter of time before Sirius loses it too. He swipes at his eyes. 

"Are you crying too, Sirius?" says Lily.

"No," he says, wiping at his eyes again. "Just something in my eye." 

Remus snorts. 

"What about James, he's got actual real tears coming out of his eyes!" 

"They just asked me to be godfather! I'm allowed to cry."

"Will you then?" Remus asks. "Be Teddy's godfather?" 

"As if I could ever say otherwise," James says, sniffling again.

Remus beams.

"Thank you, I can't tell you how much this means to us."

Lily gingerly takes Teddy from James so that he can throw his arms around Remus. 

"Oof."

That's it, Sirius sniffles again and concedes to let the happy tears fall. 

"Alright there, Padfoot?" James asks, still holding onto Remus.

Sirius nods.

Remus extricates one of his hands from underneath James and reaches out to Sirius. 

"Come on then, Padfoot. I'd say there's room for one more."

Sirius doesn't need to be told twice. He wraps his arms around his two greatest friends and holds on tight. 

"Couldn't be prouder of you, Moony," Sirius says. 

Above him, Remus starts sniffling and it's only moments before the three of them are all in a great big lump of a hug crying together.

"Thank you. Both of you. And you, Lily. If you weren't busy holding the light of my life then rest assured I'd be pulling you into this cry-fest too."

Lily grins. "Oh, I've no doubt."

They let go after another moment or two and Sirius migrates immediately to Lily's side. Teddy's eyes are open now and he's managed to wiggle one arm out of the blanket and Sirius is utterly mesmerized.

"Best let Sirius hold him soon, I can see from all the way over here that he's nearing combustion," Tonks says. 

Lily, James, and Remus laugh.

Sirius pouts and crosses his arms over his chest. "I can wait my turn like a grownup."

Lily laughs again and hands Teddy back to Remus. "Sure you can."

"Does that mean you don't want to hold him then?" Remus asks. "Your loss," he says bringing the bundle close to his face and kissing the baby once atop the head.

Sirius squawks. 

"Give me him, Lupin." 

Remus grins and hands the baby over. 

Sirius gasps the moment Teddy is in his arms. Up close he's even more like Remus from the color of his eyes to the shape of his face. Most babies just look like any other baby but there is absolutely no doubt in his mind that this baby is a carbon copy of Remus Lupin.

"He's perfect." 

Sirius gets a few more glorious moments holding Teddy Lupin before he opens his mouth and lets out a great, ear-shattering wail. 

"Ah, he's getting hungry then," Tonks says. "Give him here before he gives you permanent hearing loss." 

Sirius is just about to hand him over when there's a great commotion in the hallway just outside room 786B. Sirius grins. Lily was right after all. 

Harry bursts through the doorway, slightly out of breath. He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose before speaking.

"I heard the baby was born."

There's a brief pause and the entire hospital room bursts into laughter. Later they'll have to ask him how he snuck out of school during the middle of the day and made it all the way to St. Mungo's. 

"Welcome to the party," Remus says, pulling Harry into a hug. "Come meet your cousin Teddy."

**Author's Note:**

> Title shamelessly borrowed from the Mamma Mia! 2 version of 'I've been waiting for you.' (Unrelated- If you ever want a good HP induced cry, go listen to the movie version and think of Lily and Harry.)
> 
> Catch me on tumblr blogging about wolfstar: pancake-surprise


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